1. Java and Spring
>> Test Data Builders and Object Mother: another look
Let’s start this review with something cool – an interesting combination of using the well-known Builder pattern with a factory. I’ve been personally doing Builder-only for years, but I might give this shorthand a try. All in all – go read this one.
>> Lambda Expressions and Stream API: basic examples
Some quick and to the point examples of using Java 8 Lambas and Streams – Rafał is on a roll this week 🙂
>> Java 8 Friday: 10 Subtle Mistakes When Using the Streams API
Looks like the Streams API has a few caveats to be aware of – good to have a rundown of some of these.
>> Further Cache Improvements in Spring 4.1
The Spring Cache support is clearly moving forward with 4.1. We’re going to see more convenient operations when interacting with the cache directly, more flexibility in terms of picking an actual caching implementation as well as some good exception handling improvements.
>> Final Service Release For Spring Data Release Train Codd Available
New Spring Data release – mostly bug fixes which makes it an easy upgrade.
>> Better error messages with Bean Validation 1.1 in Spring MVC application
Good rundown of an up-to-date bean validation setup for Spring MVC – definitely worth bookmarking.
>> The Simple Story Paradox
In the wake of all the TDD hangouts and ensuing discussions – here’s an interesting and in-depth take on the design choices we sometimes take for granted. There’s a whole spectrum between the simplest possible thing all the way up to an N-tiered architecture.
>> Getting Started with Gradle: Introduction
Looks like a good intro into Gradle, if you’re planning to jump over. I personally haven’t yet gone to much into Gradle other than building Spring Framework (which now uses it) – just because at a first glance, it looked a little bit similar to Ant in terms of to much flexibility. If I do decide to give it a proper go, this is going to be the tutorial I follow.
2. Musings
>> Code Reviews Should Be about Incremental Improvement
Lots to learn from this code reviews series, and the argument that you should really fight your gut instinct and pick your battles in a discussion probably goes far beyond the code review setting.
This is something that never came naturally to me, so I had to learn by doing and tracking the results. Being considerate and accepting that you’re not going to radically change everything in this one single discussion – has resulted in a much better chance of actually making an impact.
